SPEAKING AMERICAN:
How the Democrats Can Win in the Nineties

by David Kusnet (1992)

POPULISM - BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

"...Four years later, a month before the election, Democratic candidate Hubert Humphrey found himself trailing Richard Nixon by twelve points.

"Vic Fingerhut sent a memo to [the Humphrey campaign's] high command advocating a strategy that concentrated on partisan differences on economic issues, particularly on which party fights for working people.

"He advised de-emphasizing everything else from civil rights to the Vietnam War to the personalities of the two candidates (despite the fact that Humphrey was more likable than the brooding Nixon).

"In the final weeks of the campaign, Humphrey took Fingerhut's advice and began echoing Truman in a passionately populist stump speech:

"What has Richard Nixon ever done for old folks?"

"What has Richard Nixon ever done for schools?"

"What has Richard Nixon ever done for workingmen?"

"So what are you going to do for Richard Nixon?"

To which the crowd shouted, "Nothing!"

"And Humphrey reminded audiences that 'our Republican friends have fought every piece of legislation that has benefited ordinary working and middle income families in this country.'

"By Election Day, Humphrey had so narrowed the margin that he lost by only seven-tenths of a percentage point ...Humphrey had gained eight million votes in the final three weeks of the campaign."

(Quoted from David Kusnet's widely-cited book analyzing

various potential Democratic strategies.)

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Kusnet's review of five presidential elections concluded that Vic Fingerhut's strategic suggestions were far and away the most enduringly effective ones for the Democrats to follow ...and the only ones that worked consistently in capturing the critical swing voters.

Vic's media campaigns have proven time and time again that they can quickly and massively shift large numbers of voters...whether it was the 10-day, 7-million-voter shift to Dukakis...or the 11-million-voter shift away from Gingrich's "Contract with America" in less than three weeks.

(Gingrich himself personally blamed Vic’s national media campaign for the defeat of his “Contract with America.")

Critical Strategic Note for 2008

The shift against Gingrich and the Republicans came precisely from this same group of critical swing voters (socially conservative, economically populist) who will determine the outcome of the 2008 presidential election.

Vic's regular advisories provide Democrats with guidance on how to deal with the fundamental belief systems and underlying attitudes of this absolutely critical group of swing voters.

(To receive Vic's email advisories, simply request to be added to the advisory email list on our Contact Page.)

You might start getting some basic insight into this critical voting group by reading Vic's article and memo dealing with the 2002 and 2004 elections. Both can be found on the left-hand column of our homepage.